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In This Issue:
Ad Words Select
Recently
joining the arena of PPC with their new program "Ad Words Select,"
Google is aiming to give Overture a run for their money. Their program
works slightly differently then Overture's; in some ways it's even
better. To open an account you'll need to invest $5.00 and create
short text ads. When searches are done on Google for your
keywords/phrases, your ads will show up in the right hand column on
the results page.
Unlike
Overture, the position of your ads is based on two factors: the amount
of your bid, and the clickthru rate your ad receives. Google recently
made a deal with AOL to show the top 3 Ad Words Select listings on AOL
Search, along with Earthlink and Sympatico. This really extends
Google's reach and gives your site a chance to be seen by AOL's 33
million users.
Minimum
cost per click is 5 cents and you can set up a maximum daily spend
amount if you're on a tight budget. Ads can be updated or changed
whenever you like by logging into the control panel.
Beware of
Google's Editors, who are a tough crowd to please and will block your
ads if they don't meet their "strict guidelines." One thing they don't
allow is all caps in your URL. For example, they won't let you put "YourDomain.com"
in your ad because they feel this is "excessive capitalization." So
you'll have to settle for "yourdomain.com." I told you they were
tough.
Fast Surpasses Google in Size
Fast, the
Norwegian based company that powers AllTheWeb and Lycos, announced
that they have now indexed a record setting 2.1 billion pages across
the Web. This number, if accurate, would edge out Google's claim of
2,073,418,204 pages indexed as of this writing. Up until now, no one
has been able to challenge Google in terms of index size.
Although
that gives Fast a bit of a lead, it may not be one that is likely to
last long. I've heard reports that Google has been spidering the Web
at a brisker pace lately. Web sites with higher link popularities and
Google "PageRank" are indexed weekly and sometimes daily. Less popular
sites may still have to wait 30 days though, with indexing most often
taking place during the last week of the month.
Special Command Escapes
Porn Window Trap
Here's an important
trick to break the cycle of never ending browser windows on PCs.
Whenever you want to close a browser window, get in the habit of
pressing the CONTROL key and the W key together. The CONTROL key is
the one which reads "CTRL". It is located at the bottom corner of your
keyboard.
If you happen into a porn trap, hold down the CTRL key and quickly tap
the W key several times. You should be free of the invading windows in
a few seconds.
AOL Now Google-powered
AOL
Search changed to being fully "Google-powered" last week, completing a
transition that was announced in May. Now both paid listings and
crawler-based editorial results come from Google.
If AOL is
now the same as Google, then how to choose between them? The answer is
that AOL has some slight differences that may make it more appealing
to AOL users. Let's break down the results page at AOL, then see where
this may happen.
When you
do a search, the top of the page will have a "Recommended Sites" area.
This is where AOL may present either editorial picks as selected by
its own editors, promote internal AOL content or list sponsored
results.
Next
comes the "Sponsored Sites" area. These are paid listings provided by
Google, and they've been in place since last May, when Google won the
AOL deal from Overture.
After
this is the "Matching Sites" area, where last week's big change has
happened. Previously, this information was predominately powered by
crawler-based results from Inktomi. Now Google's crawler-based results
have taken over.
Since the most important factor for a good rating on
Google is popularity (how many sites are linked INTO your site) it is
more important than ever to get out there and find sites that will
list your site on their links page.
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